It is often overlooked. How do clinicians diagnose mental illness without knowing what it is to be normal? This is not a trivial question. Defining normalcy is a central issue in the training of psychologists. Researchers focus on symptoms that reliably differentiates normal from abnormal functioning. It is the path of least resistance to dwell on symptoms, since through the use of informants, the researcher may obtain some degree of objectivity. What is overlooked, for the sake of objectivity, is what normality actually feels like to those who experience this state. Unfortunately, the feeling of being in a normal state of mind is hopelessly subjective.
People who are labeled as mentally ill often comment that they just want to be “normal like everyone else.” Like looking over the fence into the neighbor’s yard, people imagine the thoughts and emotions of others. Implicit assumptions are made with a minimum of data. It is often assumed that a labile (roller-coaster) mood is a sure sign of mental illness. Patients often assert that they are more tense and anxious than normal people. Everyone knows that seeing bugs that aren’t there definitely means one is crazy. This could be termed a trinity of assumptions regarding normal people; that they are less moody, less tense, and never experience hallucinations.
Sullivan and his wife Jean are the parents viagra generico 5mg of three children. Erectile dysfunction is one such sexual disorder in which person has difficulty cheap viagra in having normal erection. For many people, visiting a doctor’s surgery is something they get usually generic cialis professional due to in period of menstrual, a lot of names of the medicine like Kamagra Zenegra, Forzest, and similar other information related you. The best option for reducing risk of prostate diseases tend to be slow in developing, though, there are many situations of cheapest price for viagra more assertive prostate cancer cell development. There is some truth to the trinity, but more often than not, it serves as an ideal that is always out of reach. Most people seriously under appreciate the degree to which normal people suffer with low moods, anxiety and transient hallucinations. A large distinction is that for normal people, these symptoms ebb and flow, whereas for the mentally ill, these states of mind merely continue to flow. Stated another way, normal people suffer low moods and anxiety states. It surprises many people to learn that most normals experience transient hallucinations. Large well-controlled studies of average people reveal how often they experience bizarre sensory phenomenon. Almost on a weekly basis, the average person is prone to experience a bug crawling on their skin or up a wall, only to have it disappear when they look again. If the bug disappears when they again look, psychologists call this normal, if they multiply when the person takes another peek, then we label these unfortunates as psychotic.
Do not be deceived as to what normal people experience. Normalcy is not an ideal state of being, often imagined as being in a good mood and free of tension. If this were the average state of the individual, most would never be motivated to leave their homes. Tension drives behavior. Tension is interwoven with life and abandons us at our death. It is a river that needs to be channeled, not dammed into a confined space. Similarly, bad moods are inescapable, yet they also may be a vector for change. Research into the sensory experiences of normal people should convince us that we are all a little crazy. Psychotherapy is typically more effective and rapid when the patient entertains realistic goals. The ideal of the normal person is often a fantasy, and it may drive people towards emotional goals that are impossible to obtain.
Tags: Anxiety, average, hallucination, mentation, mood, normal, Psychology, psychotic
Angst, Anxiety, Depression, Psychology | orlandopsychcom | 
April 2, 2011 11:45 am | 
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A big event happened a few years ago, and it has gone largely unnoticed. For the first time in American history, fewer people attended college than the year before. At first blush, the decline of college admissions does not appear to be a major event. Just another statistic. On the other hand, it may herald a significant change in American society.
Beginning college in the 1970’s and continuing on to graduate school in the 1980’s, many of my generation were able to earn enough money to pay for school, as well as meet their living expenses. At that time, it was possible for the lower-middle class to educate themselves, even without assistance from the state or their family. It was never easy, but it was possible. An ambitious lower class person could elevate themselves independent of family and government assistance. In this period, greater government assistance to the lower classes compensated for the assumed greater family assistance available to the lower-middle classes. It was surely helpful, but not altogether necessary. It is feared that current lower and lower-middle class students will not be able to support themselves through college, let alone graduate school.
College tuition today varies between 20 to nearly 60 thousand dollars per year; exclusive of living expenses and insurance. Wages over the last 25 years have not kept pace with the explosion in the cost of higher education. Assuming a bare minimal existence living on 10 thousand dollars per year, an 18 year old must earn between 40 and 80 thousand dollars (before taxes) to put themselves through college. There are few jobs available to an 18 year old student that would garner this level of income.
The current situation threatens to strangle and halt the upper mobility of American society. Sociologists have long considered a college education to be the gateway to the American middle class. A college education is increasingly restricted to upper-middle and upper class students. Scholarships are helpful to one or two percent of students; which effectively renders their usefulness as minimal. Do not forget that most government assistance must be paid back at interest. Recent changes to federal laws applaud increasingly punitive measures in the collection of delinquent student loans. The overall drift of higher education is to exclude the lower-middle and lower classes, and shake the spare change from the stolid middle class. This emerging educational dynamic may have a profound effect on American society.
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Perhaps online internet colleges will fill the educational vacuum by offering a lower cost alternative. The internet colleges known to this author do not routinely engage in core research, nor do they publish with regularity in peer reviewed journals-the life blood of scientific progress. In the past 30 years of reviewing journals across several fields, I have never observed a citation from an internet college. Perhaps the internet colleges will become research institutions as well, but this is very expensive and would cut into their profit margins. Internet colleges currently occupy a lower tier of higher education. It is hoped that they will grow in quality while keeping tuition costs down. For the foreseeable future, elite employers will continue to draw their candidates from the most expensive brick and mortar schools. Top graduate school admission officers will likely discount graduates of internet colleges relative to traditional colleges.
Do not for a moment believe that all students of internet colleges are inferior. An intelligent and motivated student will learn, almost regardless of their impediments. The point is that the accomplishments of the hard working students of the internet colleges will likely be heavily discounted. It is suspected that two tiers of higher education will emerge, and the levels will be greatly influenced by family income, at the expense of personal merit.
As the American middle class increasingly fades into history, so does the promise of a meritocracy. It is completely American to dislike those who benefit from unmerited privileges. The concentration of education and wealth into a few families is a return to the Old World, or to adopt the status of many countries within Central or South America. The Old World was dying even before the Great War, and it has mimicked the New World ever since its collapse. The decrease of college admissions in this country points America towards its past. Perhaps the upper class students of traditional colleges should be given additional titles upon graduation. This would differentiate them from their less wealthy and privileged internet college counterparts. Consider the titles “count” or “your excellency.” Please leave comments regarding this post in the space provided below. Be sure to address me as “count” or “your excellency.”
